Why Do Red States Have the Worst "Family Values"?

[kpete]

Why Do Red States Have the Worst "Family Values"?
The "red family system" preaches early marriage and traditional gender roles -- a model no longer suited to our post-industrial economy. No wonder "red families" are falling apart.
August 2, 2010 |


Are conservative “values voters” who consider themselves “pro-family” more likely to divorce than their liberal counterparts?

Law professors Naomi Cahn and June Carbone had what they call their “ah-ha moment” when they started looking at how states voted in presidential elections and compared the results to social trends in those states. They found that states voting red -- presumably for socially conservative, “pro-family” candidates -- also had high divorce rates, higher than in blue states. Building on their research, Cahn and Carbone then developed theories about family formation in the U.S. and its relationship to political affiliation.

In their book Red Families v. Blue Families: Legal Polarization and the Creation of Culture, the authors explain that “red families” believe adulthood is forged by the responsibilities of getting married and having children early. Blue families, by contrast, defer marriage and childbirth until after they have reached adulthood, which usually follows economic and educational attainment. The reasons for the sharp divide are rooted in economic changes and personal belief systems, which both authors discussed with me recently. Their comments, culled from conversations via the telephone and e-mail, follow.

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What did you find?

Cahn: It tended to be that red states had higher divorce rates, which surprised us. We quickly realized that states with low average ages of marriage could be expected to have higher divorce rates, so we next checked age.

Carbone: We found that teen birth rates were also higher in red states, and that more sophisticated regression analyses produced a strong correlation with the 2004 vote. We also realized that factors that produce higher divorce rates, such as the age of marriage, also correlated with the red/blue divide. We were intrigued and decided to inquire further.

more:
http://www.alternet.org/reproductivejustice/147712/why_do_red_states_have_the_worst_%22family_values%22/

[lunatica]

1. Family values for Republicans is when the man is the boss

and his wife and kids must be disciplined if they get out of line. It's smart to know how people define the same words. Family values according to Republicans and the Christian Right are that the man is the authoritarian, made in the image of their angry god who smites when it comes time for punishments to be doled out.

It's a no brainer. It's top down authority roles, the man being at the top of the family pyramid. That explains how they get away with their sexual scandals while their wives stand meekly at their side.

[RKP5637]

13. And also wife beaters, and child molesters... Any RW area I've lived in had the

same old story... wife beaters and child molesters... and religion is the key to everything as is RW politics... along with the high divorce rates and hidden shenanigans...

[T Wolf]

2. Simple - the higher the percentage of scum, the higher the amoral activities and the higher

the voting preference for rethugs.

These red states also are more parasitic in terms of taking more in federal benefits and projects than they pay in federal taxes.

A lose-lose situation for those of us who pay the bills for these bigoted hypocrites.

Better to have let them leave the Union when they wanted to. We'd be much better off and they could be living the good life in their Confederate heaven.

[RKP5637]

16. Is that ever the truth... I wish they would secede and leave the rest of us alone. They

could then have their dream of a Confederate heaven.

[Bitwit1234]

3. One thing I do know is that "family values" to republicans means

most of the men go "out" on their wives, visit prostitutes like Vitter. Have mistresses like Ensign and divorce their wives with cancer like Newt. And Oh don't forget about the serial adulter like Rudi.

[sui generis]

4. I would add a related observation

People who wait longer to get married presumably have dated multiple people and had some experience in what does and does not work in a relationship.

If you get married early, without a lot of intimate relationship experience, you really don't have the required experience to mitigate the "for worse" times.

Also dating more people tends to make one pickier about what they're willing to commit to in the long term. Things that destroy early marriages usually involve lack of communication or poor communication, or resentful compromises, and that's just if both of you are sane.

Worse, young conservative people in red states tend to be much more unrealistic about the world, and much more fragile in how well they can adapt to adversity in life and occasionally at home. Finally conservatives tend to be authoritarian, following rules for the sake of rules and responding with extreme behavior to people who defy authority, including their own, and that's guys AND gals.

[stanwyck]

9. Good points. Women, in particular, have very unrealistic

ideas about marriage. Too much of our culture gives women the idea that marriage is the only answer to lifelong happiness. Marry, and you're fulfilled. Not so. And I say this as a happily married (just once) woman of almost 32 years. Marriage requires compromise, honesty, and humor. It's a partnership of equals who want what is best for each other and know when to put the partner's needs above their own. It's also about strengthening yourself, not losing yourself.
I agree totally with your assessment.

[TBF]

15. I agree -

and also knowing when to put your own needs first (or at least carve out a little time for yourself). My first marriage barely lasted two years. Way too young and immature on both sides ...

Then I re-married in my early thirties and we are at 12 years now, with two children, and very happy. We had college, degrees, our own jobs, and had each lived on our own for awhile. We moved in together and did grad school at the same time, and then had children. I will urge my own kids to take their time with settling down.

[patrice]

17. Well stated! Especially, the stuff about experience in relationships.

:applause:

[Erose999]

5. Because "family values" is just living in a 1950's dream world that does not exist. Real parenting

is hard to do when you are living in a "holier than thou" state of denial.

[sinkingfeeling]

6. And because of the early marriages and kids, the average income in red states is lower.

[slampoet]

8. And that is also why the Blue states are paying for the Red States.

[w8liftinglady]

24. there you guys go-talking about my state again...wait-you're right.

sigh.

[raccoon]

20. And because they are so-called "right to work" states, meaning virtually no unions,

meaning, of course, lower wages.

[stanwyck]

7. All back to narrow frame of reference.

People with less education, who have traveled less, read less, experienced less of the world, have a narrower frame of reference. They have many fears: fear of people of different religions, race, gender, education, and sexual orientation. This all comes out in their political beliefs. They're scared. The GOP plays them to the point of the lunancy of Joe the Plumber, a man who described himself as a business owner (he wasn't) who would pay more taxes under Obama (he wouldn't -- even if he was a business owner as he claimed, he would pay less), who was divorced and had been on welfare. Yet, he's a conservative who railed against welfare. Why? He's afraid of who he is and what his place is in the world. He's already experienced too much failure: education, occupation, marriage.
Liberals have a wider frame of reference which helps them deal with adversity. Why is it always the conservative whackos who take their guns and kill as many innocents as possible? They can't deal with life. They lose their jobs, their wives, and they can't deal.
It's that narrow frame. It's a box. They're trapped by fear.

[lolly]

11. Yes--both effects caused by deeper issues

I would agree that underlying issues are involved with both.

Other studies have shown that rightwingers tend to be more fearful and paranoid. They're also more likely to use black/white thinking, where there are no compromises or nuances. And inflexibility is a key trait of rightwingers these days as well.

All those things also lead to bad marriages, poor parenting.

[lolly]

12. Delete--Double Post

[patrice]

10. So, does age-of-marriage corelate with need-for-authority?

My guess is that a culture that does not require the development of independent critical thinking probably trends toward moral weakness.

Preaching against Moral Relativism and for Moral Absolutism could result in "moral" agents who have no rule(s) so often (due to the inherent limitations of authority) that the aggregate of all of their moral errors perpetually creates conditions that they are more and more un-equipped morally to deal with, until you have a Holocaust and, then, a different "moral" authority (generating it's own strains of moral weakness, but strong enough in the particular suit that is the reciprocal of the strain generating the threat to have an effect upon the Evil-Doers) comes along and corrects the problem strain and becomes the dominant moral authority that perpetuates its own authoritarian in-breeding/regressions, until those aggregate to the point of danger and so on . . . .

[patrice]

14. P.S. The "inherent limitations of authority" have to do with how, if it disperses itself too far

(in order to be there in all situations requiring rule, or in order to create and enforce enough rules to cover every last situation NEEDING rules) if authority disperses itself that far, it becomes weak. It can't sustain the effort of being a perfectly absolute authority, so it's power has to be established upon LIMITATION, which, consequently, creates holes in its power, absence of moral authority in this case, absence of control over those who NEED control. And in that absence, errors about what is "moral" (as defined by the moral authority) grow and grow and propagate themselves.

[Recursion]

18. Alternate theory with reverse causation

People who live in areas where families are falling apart all the time are more likely to be frightened about "the decline of the family", and so more likely to vote for people who make that their chief rhetorical issue.

[RKP5637]

19. Yep, excellent observation! n/t

[SoCalDem]

21. Hyper-religious society encourages young marriages

and low low taxes pretty much means low low low amounts of money spent on education....excessive attention to "godly-teaching" deprives kids of interesting things to study, and may lead to more drop outs.

Young people with shitty jobs / no jobs , too many kids too soon, alcohol/substance excess, family violence..a recipe for unhappy couples

[MisterP]

22. religious studies guy Alan Wolfe notes that conservative Evangelicalism

encourages teen pregnancy as well as too-early marriage

the strictures on premarital sex emerge from living at home, "village culture" where everyone watches everyone else, etc., as much as what comes out of the pulpits and at-home sermons

[w8liftinglady]

23. Now,c'mon-they're all "Good Christians"

they probably would have hated the "real" Jesus,too-too socialist.

[gulliver]

25. Not really contradictory/hypocrisy.

People having the lowest family values (per capita) would be expected to vote for a party that claimed they can increase said values. So the red state people are credulous but not hypocritical.

[Odin2005]

26. Because they are doublethinking hypocrites.